The Eh’s were wild today as the Canadian mafia got together for the podcast with Nick joined by Jonah Keri. I wonder if Bret “The Hitman” Hart was invited, but got blown off in yet another screw job. I also join the show to discuss the start of Razzball Radio and my luscious manstache. I don’t use any special products for its sheen, just your run-of-the-mill mayonnaise. I do want to take a second and discuss the sacrifices Nick has taken in order to make Razzball Radio a reality. He quit his job, sold his house, moved his family to ‘Murica and jumped into this thing feet first. Why? Because he’s absolutely crazy. Seriously, not one of you is a career counselor to try to screw Nick’s head on straight? The man has lost it. It being everything. Right now, I’m miming the ‘crazy sign’ when you rotate your finger by your ear. But, you know what, we like crazy here at Razzball. Anyway, here’s the Razzball Podcast (now with nostalgic tales of the Expos):

@Nick The Podcast Host: My friend just got done writing a front page piece on how the cold is destroying this years maple syrup crop in VT so apparently US maple syrup trees are bigger pussies than Canadian ones.

All right gentlemen, be gentle with me. Snake draft order for Sunday’s official for my 5×5, 5 keeper, roto, mixed league and I drew 12th place out of twelve teams. Who should my marked men be for the 1st 2 picks?

I was scared to admit this. I knew some fans would be angry and feel as though I let them down. And I wasn’t sure what my bosses would think, either. And let’s be honest; this may not be great for my career. It certainly lowers my visibility outside of football season.

I’m not sure if you know this expression in the US (it’s Irish), but this is a guy who has lost the run of himself.

No, seriously. Just saw his latest column. I mean, I had to read 500 words worth of blah blah blah* before I could understand what he was getting at, but I guess he’s giving up doing fantasy baseball to concentrate on football.

@Sky: There has to be a better reason than “concentrating on football”

It’s a good thing he told us he was quitting. I would not have noticed otherwise since there is no reason to read his articles unless you want to read 5 paragraphs of him waxing poetic about whatever is going on in his brain that day. If ever there was a person who has forgotten his roots and started to believe his own hype it would be Matthew Berry… good riddance

I honestly don’t remember reading any of his stuff. I mean, he’s writing about daily transaction baseball and you have to sift for like 5 hours just to get the key content. Not saying I didn’t but if it happened, it doesn’t stand out. Then again, most of my research comes from fangraphs and 2013 was my first ESPN league so it’s pretty easy to stay disconnected from him in that respect.

The turnover probably has more to do with Cockcroft than anything. Nate Ravitz is gone too I guess? Eh, it’s like picking up a People magazine randomly at the grocery store for me. ‘Kim and Kanye got married and had a kid? Oh, ok’ *puts down magazine*

@Sky: Yeah I only see the ESPN stuff because I have the main page bookmarked because all my leagues are on ESPN.

I hear you on fangraphs, I get so much useful stuff from there. I just feel like ESPN is trying to lead the herd instead of provide compelling content. I don’t watch Sportscenter or any of that anymore because I just feel like the quality has deteriorated to a point where it is not worth my time any more.

Grantland is a perfect example of how you can mix culture and sports and not come off as fame hungry morons, though Bill Simmons approaches the line sometimes.

As I’ve said to anyone who listens, ESPN is to sports what MTV is to music. They’ve both devolved into reality television crap with mere sprinklings of their actual intended content. Skip Bayless? Colin Cowherd? I mean, what the living breathing ef…I need to get into Grantland more. It’s getting huge and I was barely aware of it.

@Sky: Grantland is good but honestly it depends on the writer. Some of them are not worth the time.

It’s becoming an issue with our culture these days. Our attention spans are so low people just go from one shiny sparkly thing to another… which leads the content creators to cater to what they think people want. It’s a self propelling suck machine that makes you really appreciate a place like Razzball, and it’s why I have no problem supporting this site with my money or by posting too much and boosting the ad revenue

It’s also the expectation that change is good for change’s sake. I get they don’t want to show log sawing competitions at 2 pm PST anymore. It’s fine if you want to make ‘The View: But For Sports’ to fill up your daily content. But seriously, you don’t need ESPN2 and ESPN3 to show fucking sports…THAT’S WHAT YOUR MAIN DAMN CHANNEL IS FOR! Sorry, got a little heated there. In the end, ESPN is 23 hours worth of People magazine for sports and maybe 1 hour of actual sports content. It’s beyond ridiculous.

Exactly. So much fluff. One of the main reasons I don’t see a need to have cable. I’d watch the news and sports and since most channels with those are entertainment over content, it’s not worth the money.

@Sky: Highly coincidental that Berry makes the announcement the day after Razzball Radio is announced…

I’m guessing Grey and Berry are the same person and they/he is giving up ESPN baseball because Razzball is blowing up. Hear me out.
They are both screenwriters turned fantasy baseball journalists.
Both use pop culture references.
Both love Sonny Gray and Danny Salazar this year.
Both know people in Texas.
They both eat food.
Both… have… ummmm..stuff in their house… I’m assuming.

Grey—need your help, I’m pulling my hair out over here and already smoked all my good stuff trying to figure this out….Big $$ keeper league draft tonight…I have 9th pick….I need 1B, 2B, UTIL in 1st two rounds. Heres who should be available when I pick: Machado (not kept by me for, ref: guidance from you) ….Donaldson, Altuve, Hosmer, Rizzo, Abreu, Gyroko…Ok, heres the deal….I really want Machado for Util but don’t wanna take a risk on losing Gyroko (as there are 5 other teams w/o 2b like me) and 2 of those teams pick at 10-11….I’m afraid if I dont take Jerk, he will be gone b4 my 2nd pick…And I really need a 1B also as there is slim pickings out there…M. Adams is also out there but Im not sure if he will make it all the way back to me at 3 if I dont take a 1B….What would you do and who would u target in my 1st 2 rounds? …Signed: Stoned and confused…Thanks

Hey Grey,
Great stuff as usual, I appreciate all the hard work from the Razzball team.

I am in a 14-team auction roto league with extremely limited moves. Roster size is 23 total starters with 6 reserves. I can only pick up a player if a player on my roster is DL’d, retires, or dies. We are only allowed one drop of an active player all year. There are 3 DL spots, so I was thinking it might be wise to draft a player that is DL’d. What do you think? Should I target a DL’d SP (Iwakuma, Griffin, or Niese), a DL’d bat (Machado), or forget the idea all together?

The podcast is back and Razzball radio is hitting the road. Good stuff. Although I’d look to replace that camera that took the picture of you guys that Nick posted the other day. It made Rudy’s skin tone much lighter and took away all of his hair…

Your projection for Bradley calls for 90 IPs and mediocre ratios due to his high walk rate, but if he breaks camp with the D’Backs, where would you target him in a standard 12 team redraft format? NFBC format? And did you see him at all in AZ? Looks like he has the stuff to make an impact.

So none of the youngsters will be better or ten team relevant? or just such a question mark?

Also wanted to say because of your realistic attitude and obvious enjoyment for the game keeps me coming back for more. It’s ok people to get excited for a player!!!

I say this because many other “gurus” always want to hate on new talent, we are interested in these venturas … NOT because we want new its because if we dont know them we will obviously have more questions. Why would we ask someone if Dunn was going to hit 230 again. Anyhow just wanted to vent.

In an attempt to price enforce during my auction I was left holding the bag with Matt Moore. You can not win my league (innings cap of 1250) without averaging a team k/9 rate of 9 or higher. Other pitchers are Julio Tehran, Liriano, Cingrani and Carlos Maretinez (please please please make the rotation in STL). Should I start trying to trade Moore right away or sit?

So I’m kinda big on Salazar this year (surprise), would you rather grab robertson as your first RP and chance missing out on Salazar as your 3rd SP
OR
grab salazar and go with Reed as your first closer?

BTW I hope you guys use Rudy’s Chesneyness to get girls out of town. Seems like an awesome wing man lie….yeah yeah that’s Kenny right there! See here’s a picture of us at Wrigley ignore the ogre in the middle. Wanna make out? No? But I’m Kenny’s best friend!

Hey Grey, any reason why you went with Krispie Round 21 in the Yahoo draft this afternoon? Thought there were some guys higher in your rankings you’d prefer. Loved your draft, and enjoyed the Noise being on auto-draft.

Thanks! re: Young — Eh, in reality, I’m gonna probably drop him after the first week (if that long), but figured I’d take a chance at upside… If he platoons, maybe I’ll platoon him with someone… Probably won’t keep Alex Torres who I took last either… What do you think of the team overall?

Really [email protected]Grey: Really like it overall, would be shocked if you’re not in play end of season. Good mix of floor and upside offensively-certainly some injury risks in there but that’s probably unavoidable.

Really liked your high upside strategy regarding pitching, a few of your later guys will definitely pop. One minor quibble, I would have taken Gray over Veras and targeted a closer next round, although there certainly was a closer rush going on.

Yeah, I had to take a 2nd closer way earlier than I wanted to or risk not having one… I would’ve preferred Gray to Veras too… Thanks for looking! I think the team’s decent… I need some of my upside SPs to pan out…

Hey ya Grey! Ok here’s one that you may or may not laugh at!! But I gotta ask once you look at my team…Here it is a 20 Team H2H. Had a trade offer…that’s well interesting!
Offer to me is Trout and R. Soriano (I have no Saves guy)
Back to him is Puig or Jones/Bailey (if no further worries about this injury)/Melancon

@Grey: Gah. I don’t have him anywhere. Could have taken him at #13 in the ol’ H2H draft on Sunday but after taking Votto at #12 wanted a real big bat so took Giancarlo instead. Have him on 3 teams this year…

In my 15 team (11 keeper) yahoo roto was offered Ryan Zimm and a third for Nathan and a 5th. Have Arenado at 3rd currently. Would hurt my saves but still have Nate Jones and Rex Brothers. Also Hawkins, Qualls, Clippard, Scheppers, Crain on waivers. My one utility spot right now is Cuddyer.

I wouldn’t deal your middle infielders yet, too early for that… Your team looks very solid for H2H, I like the balance of power and speed, I do think Upton might be death, but you can try him out… Your pitching looks decent, if a little upsidey…

Sup Grey? Need some valuable insight on a few players I’ve had on my mind. What are your thoughts on the following players:

Grady Sizemore – will he become a starter and return to fantasy relevance or is he a waste of a bench spot?
Ricky Nolasco – will he revert back to his old crappy self in the AL
Jesse Chavez – A’s always seem to have some no name pitcher become a stud out of nowhere. Could he follow suit?
Byron Buxton – will he even get the call this year or is he just taking up a roster spot on my bench?
Gregory Polanco – will he get the call soon?

Do you think there’s a greater value in taking a 1B or OF with a late first round pick this year? For example, after all the keepers are said and done I’m probably looking at these 4 guys at pick 8…cargo. Braun. Fielder. Votto.
Do you think the better strategy would be go top 1b in rd 1 then a 2nd or 3rd tier OF ( guys like Bautista, rios, Holliday). Or go top OF there and go with a 2nd/ 3rd tier 1B ( Agon, pujols, hosmer, Craig). It’s a points league so I know we are in the minority. Guys like Adam jones don’t rack up the points because of poor K/BB ratio and k’s are killers. Just wondering your ( or anyone who wants to chime in) thoughts. Thanks as always!

How do you think I did? Again, it’s H2H points. Pitching runs real deep in the league. I felt pretty good when I got done. Made a clear decision to wait on 3B based on how things were going in the draft and I’m guessing someone gets dumped eventually there with the 3 way committee I have going on.

Look out if you do a live event in Minnesota. Joe Mauer may show up and take a swing at you for your shcmohawk tag. He’ll make solid contact but it probably won’t have much power behind it. More of a light shove really…